Telescope, part-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, is the new 3-1 St Leger favourite
with sponsors Ladbrokes after winning the Neptune Investment Management
Great Voltigeur Stakes at York on Wednesday.

In what appeared a better trial, run at a more generous pace, than the muddling Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, the colt beat Foundry, an Aidan O’Brien maiden winner making his seasonal reappearance, by a 1¼ lengths with half-a-length back to Secret Number and Spillway, fifth and third respectively at Goodwood.

Hitherto, Telescope’s notices have not quite matched the early-season hype heaped upon the son of Galileo, who was Sir Michael Stoute’s one-time Derby hope, However, as Ryan Moore pointed out, that overinflated reputation was not the colt’s fault. He then added, in a realistic assessment, that Telescope was “no world-beater but not bad.”

That may well be good enough to win the St Leger, for which he will have to be supplemented, but this victory at the Ebor meeting was a good note on which to bring up the 400th winner for Highclere, his owners.

Harry Herbert, whose brainchild the Highclere syndicates were, said: “It’s a great relief to us and Sir Michael’s team to see him do it so well. There has been a question mark over the horse, but not according to Sir Michael. After racing against older horses at Haydock he went back to his drawing board and decided there was only one race for him in his own age bracket, and this was it.

“At Haydock he was babyish on all fronts, but he learned from it. He’s progressing and learning how to race with every run and has to be in the mix for the Leger now. Ryan Moore had a job pulling him up today.”

Henry Candy won the Pinsent Masons LLP Acomb Stakes with Treaty of Paris, who held off the late surge of the well-backed local colt, The Grey Gatsby. “He’s a horse with a big future,” Candy said. “He might only have one more run this season. He has a lot of developing to do.”

The fast conditions should suit The Fugue in Thursday’s Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Lady Lloyd-Webber’s filly has not won since last year’s Nassau at Goodwood. However, she was unlucky with the draw in the Breeders’ Cup and if she reproduces her third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, behind Al Kazeem, it should be good enough.